BENSON & HEDGES - BIRDCAGE - 1977

Benson & Hedges – Birdcage – 1977

This shot was the second image in a initial series of the ground breaking award winning Benson & Hedges campaign for the agency Collett Dickenson & Pearce in 1977 with art director Alan Waldie. New laws had restricted the use of conventional images of people smoking cigarettes and they decided to play with scale and dimension to create a surreal illusion. Duffy enjoyed technical challenges and projected a black & white negative through an old Rank spot projector light to create the bird shadow. Today this would be easily created in Photoshop. This initial series of photographs consolidated the concept which other photographers were to follow and Duffy is recognised as one of the top 100 most influential photographers of all time. As time went on Duffy became anti-smoking and withdrew from cigarette advertising.